The present invention relates to a web of pre-opened bags in a compact dispensing format and a method for packaging point-of-purchase items using such pre-opened bags.
Plastic bags stored in bulk, for example, on supply rolls containing a plurality of attached bags, have conventionally been provided in supermarkets and other locations to provide the consumer with a convenient means for packaging items, such as, for example, articles of produce and other groceries, selected for purchase. Since, typically, fruits and vegetables are uniquely priced per unit of weight, packaging each type of produce in its own separate bag permits simplified determination of price at checkout, while concomitantly protecting the contents from contamination, damage and moisture loss. The lightweight nature of the bags obviates the need for taking a tare weight of the bag prior to weighing of the merchandise, further adding to the convenience attendant their use.
Heretofore, such bags have typically been provided on webs contained on continuous supply rolls having tear lines between adjacent bags to readily permit separation of individual bags from the remainder of a supply roll. Once removed, a bag is typically opened at the tear line and contents may then be inserted therein. Since attached bags are initially separated at a tear line while on a supply roll, the bags must normally be removed from the roll in order to permit filling with produce or other items. This can prove to be inconvenient, especially if a person's hands are full. It is also often difficult to open such bags since, as a result of a manufacturing process, a bag opening can cling together, sometimes as the result of static electricity. Frequently such bags can be difficult to open when a user's hands are cold or excessively dry. It can also be difficult for a user to perceive the location or the correct end of a bag at which the opening is positioned.
In some applications, a supply roll containing a web of bags is part of a larger storage form that allows the supply roll to rotate freely as each bag is being dispensed. However, such permitted free rotation of the supply roll can further complicate the dispensing of bags, especially if the user's hands are full, cold or dry, or if there is static cling or other inherent difficulties encountered while attempting to detach and/or to open a bag from the web. Frequently, such encountered difficulties can cause the accidental dispensing of multiple bags from the freely rotating supply roll. This can significantly increase retailer costs and detract from the general tidiness and appearance of the area immediately surrounding the storage form due to sloppy supply roll unfurling and the local accumulation of unwanted dispensed or partially dispensed bags. Free rotation of the supply roll could also complicate the opening of a bag prior to removal from the web.
It would therefore be highly desirable to provide a bag that is supplied from a continuously attached web of bags that would permit a user to easily open and fill each bag as it is being dispensed from a supply roll without requiring each bag to be first removed from the continuous web. Furthermore, a method of packaging using such pre-opened bags would also provide an advantage over conventionally practiced point-of-purchase packaging methods by virtue of the fact that the additional user step of opening each bag prior to filling would be eliminated. In addition, configuring a storage form to restrict free rotation of a supply roll and to increase bag tension would further enhance the dispensing and usefulness of such pre-opened bags.